That would be their version of impulse power since engaging their warp drive causes too much collateral damage to the local space time.
Scientists did tests for sentience in many animals and the results were surprising. These tests centered around whether an animal could recognize its reflection in a mirror as its own.
Gorillas, dolphins, and some corvids (crows, ravens, etc) clearly showed self awareness. For example, a white smudge was put on the face of a gorilla. When the gorilla saw the smudge in its reflection, it fussed and tried to wipe the smudge off its face.
Try that with a dog or cat. They have essentially zero self awareness, although they do have highly evolved social perceptions. They seem pretty smart, but they're really not.
Another area of science that's incomplete. That's why they're testing. To find out in what ways they may or may not be self-aware. Not enough tools in the tool box.
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mirrors won’t work with dogs as they think they are human, as for cats...
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I don't think that test is so new. I read about it ten years ago.
I don't subscribe to human superiority over animals. We have unique talents, but so do many other animals. A cat's motor coordination is magnitudes better than ours. A dog's sense of smell is way more sensitive than ours. Many birds can migrate thousands of miles, across multiple continents, to the same areas year after year, using primarily the earth's magnetic field for navigation. All these talents require highly specialized brains. So we have only one ace in the hole. Not that special.
Such experiment is human interference / aid. I wonder if the same happens in natural setting.
The gorilla had to figure out that it was looking at its own reflection. I don't believe that any amount of "human interference/aid" will make a dog understand that it's looking at its own reflection.
I think we've all seen how a dog reacts when it sees its own reflection. It clearly demonstrates lack of awareness.
I think we've all seen how a dog reacts when it sees its own reflection. It clearly demonstrates lack of awareness.
I'm not sure if it matters depending on the reflection surface. Be it calm water or mirror (created by human).
I agree, in general, and with "superiority" undefined.
It isn't simply intelligence as the lone ace in the hole. It's that intelligence advantage AND the ability to think in abstractions.
For the record, I agree with Fast Eddie about this. I think we are remarkable in some ways but so are other animals. A few animals match us in some of our own characteristics and many animals far exceed us in characteristics we are not so good at. But we are like the pretentious insecure teacher who is practically a savant in one particular area.
Imagine that teacher, (who is maybe on the spectrum of Asperger's Syndrome) giving a test to all his students. It's a general knowledge test that includes aspects of practically everything. However the teacher excels in math and has little understanding of other fields of knowledge. So he fails every student that does not do well in math. He doesn't have good social skills and can't relate to a person unlike him/her self. The teacher didn't invent the test but was just given the test by the administrators to give to his students. The teacher does not understand how to value the results of the test because the teacher lacks knowledge of his place in the social environment and how he is a special case.
That's basically what a lot of the arguments about our specialness comes down to: lack of awareness of the diversity of life forms and their own unique specialness. It's a form of arrogance arising from an inability to take in the big picture. Instead their picture is narrow and arising only from their own narrow experience.
Imagine that teacher, (who is maybe on the spectrum of Asperger's Syndrome) giving a test to all his students. It's a general knowledge test that includes aspects of practically everything. However the teacher excels in math and has little understanding of other fields of knowledge. So he fails every student that does not do well in math. He doesn't have good social skills and can't relate to a person unlike him/her self. The teacher didn't invent the test but was just given the test by the administrators to give to his students. The teacher does not understand how to value the results of the test because the teacher lacks knowledge of his place in the social environment and how he is a special case.
That's basically what a lot of the arguments about our specialness comes down to: lack of awareness of the diversity of life forms and their own unique specialness. It's a form of arrogance arising from an inability to take in the big picture. Instead their picture is narrow and arising only from their own narrow experience.
Gorillas have learned sign language and used it to have conversations with humans. These conversations demonstrated that the gorilla had empathy with their human companions, among other cognitive traits.
Mind you I knew someone (a human!) that 100% lacked empathy. Yes he was clinically psychopathic and was a horrible person to deal with, but I was stuck with him because he was my relative. Anyway, my point is that when you see a complete lack of empathy in a person, you get a clearer picture of what it is. It does require higher order cognition to possess empathy and no he wasn't stupid, he was missing a part of his personality.
I hope we can all agree that a gorilla is at least smarter than a dog.
Maybe I'm having a senior moment, but do you think gorillas are mindless robots? No cognitive difference between a dog, dolphin, and a gorilla?
I'm visually challenged so it's hard for me to follow conversations on the computer sometimes.
For the record, I don't see the quantum leap between humans and other animals. In fact, I think humans are animals (and so do biologists). You're certainly free to think otherwise, but personally I consider that kind of thinking a fallacy.
I'm visually challenged so it's hard for me to follow conversations on the computer sometimes.
For the record, I don't see the quantum leap between humans and other animals. In fact, I think humans are animals (and so do biologists). You're certainly free to think otherwise, but personally I consider that kind of thinking a fallacy.
This is a bit redundant. You can't have it both ways in terms of brain power. We're either superior or we're not.The latter infers the former. There is a dividing line between our intelligence and instinctive intuition. One is self generated, the other automatic. We are equipped with the tools to distinguish which is which. I think that's a different universe compared to animals. "Superior" doesn't begin to explain the difference.
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